Inputs 4.3.3
Re-examine Massachusetts Executive Office of Energy and Environmental Affairs’ Massachusetts Prohibited Plant List[6] for benefits that they may provide to pollinators and, in light of expected climate change impacts, and make adjustments to the list as appropriate.

Inputs 4.3.4
Revise planting guidelines in local bylaws, subdivision regulations, and elsewhere to support pollinator habitats.

Inputs 4.3.5
Conduct research and education to establish guidelines on the optimal volume of managed pollinators on a site that can be balanced with native populations.

Inputs 4.3.7
Monitor research findings on the quantity, use, and impacts of pesticides, including neonicotinoids, a systemic pesticide, in order to shape effective public policy interventions.

Inputs 4.3.8
EPA must improve pesticide labels to include information about potential risk to bees.

Inputs 4.3.9
Implement the recommendations from the Pollinator Stewardship group.

Inputs 5.1.1
Increase funding to the MDAR’s Farm Energy Program to meet unmet demand. MDAR has been allocating $150,000 per year in state funds; increasing the state allocation to $350,000, as authorized in the environmental bond, would better help meet demand.

Inputs 5.1.2
Modify EOEEA’s Farm Energy Discount Program to require all brokers and suppliers to provide a ten percent discount to farmers on electricity and natural gas bills

Inputs 5.1.3
Maximize partnership opportunities with federal programs such as those at USDA NRCS, U. S. Department of Agriculture Farm Service Agency, and U.S. Department of Agriculture Rural Development that can and have provided funding and technical assistance associated with energy conservation and renewable energy investments.

Inputs 5.2.2
Allow agricultural and food businesses to use any applicable incentive payments toward the up front costs of financing energy efficiency projects to reduce the out-of-pocket expenses at the front-end of projects.

Inputs 5.2.4
Support the expansion of “upstream programs” where utilities offer energy efficiency rebates and incentives to distributors and manufacturers, rather than to customers. These programs reduce the cost premiums of more efficient technologies, making them competitive with less efficient technologies. By taking this approach, economies of scale can be realized, leading to more widespread adoption of efficient technologies compared to programs that target the end-user.

Inputs 5.2.5
Create a funding mechanism for energy efficiency incentives, such as a revolving loan fund.

Inputs 5.2.7
Integrate energy efficiency early in farm or other food system infrastructure building design processes through performance contracting, which allows energy savings to pay for the cost of retrofits and energy upgrades, and retrocommissioning, which tests a building’s energy system and identifies where improvements can be made.

Inputs 5.3.1
Raise the net metering cap for investor-owned utilities to increase the potential for cleaner, local energy generation.